Beltre, Cruz to Join Teammates in WBC

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There's no doubt where we stand on the subject of pitchers taking part in the World Baseball Classic, a world tournament that employs big-league players and causes them to miss part of spring training with the championship game coming just two weeks before the MLB regular season begins.

That's why we're glad to see that Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish has declined to take part in the WBC for Team Japan, for whom he has starred in past installments of the world tournament. He said he is focusing all of his attention this winter and spring to getting ready for his second big-league season with the Rangers, and that's a good thing.

For position players, it's not as big of a deal, and several Rangers players appear ready to commit to the home countries' teams.

It seems as though Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz will both play for the Dominican Republic, which is consistently one of the top teams in the tournament. Joining them will be minor-leaguer Engel Beltre, who will play for Spain and Elvis Andrus, who has said he wants to play for Team Venezuela.

As The Dallas Morning News' Gerry Fraley reported, Rangers GM Jon Daniels has said the club supports its players playing in the WBC, but you can bet your bottom dollar they had a little private celebration when Darvish said he would not participate.